


Young Heart (What A Waste)

by kay_emm_gee



Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: Angst, Canon Compliant, Character Study, F/F, F/M, Gen, Romeo and Juliet References
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-21
Updated: 2015-09-21
Packaged: 2018-04-22 16:20:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 688
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4842230
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kay_emm_gee/pseuds/kay_emm_gee
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Romeo was never the problem, and Juliet was never the solution. It all comes down to you, and the chaos that you have become.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Young Heart (What A Waste)

You know the story, the one of woe, of Juliet and her Romeo. Even the apocalypse cannot destroy the memory of such a tragic tale, of star-crossed lovers who, by any other name, would have survived their families’ hatreds. You know it, and you scoff, because, reading between the lines printed starkly on yellowed pages, you see Juliet’s cleverness, her clarity of mind, but still, you wonder how such a smart girl could have fallen for a boy like that.

Romeo was the problem; this you know. He should’ve waited, should have thought his actions through. Rash, impetuous, impulsive boy, always putting heart over head. It cost him, and it cost the girl he loved just as dearly.

Juliet, however, was smart. She wanted a promise, and then a plan. And when that plan fell through (banished,  _banished_ , the prince declared) she found another. Juliet kept her head level, even as her heart cried out in fear and trembled with uncertainty.

So Romeo must have been the problem, right? Their love died not because of unaligned stars, but because of choices made and logic ignored by a boy who should have known better. So it was Romeo’s fault.

Or so you thought.

* * *

Your Romeo was like the one in the story: killing in a fit of rage, but this time he slays eighteen strangers, instead of a single beloved cousin. A game of numbers doesn’t mean a thing though, because no matter the body count, he is still a murderer, and you love him anyways, just like in the story. And also like in the story, Romeo still dies. He dies, but this time you don’t, even if it feels like you want to because his blood is on your hands.

He and you are not star-crossed lovers, you know that, because his heart wasn’t his to give, belonging to a girl who has actually walked among the stars. It still feels like you two were fated, in some way, even if it is a dark and bloody fate. Whether or not you belonged to each other, though, you realize that you are not Juliet, and you hate him for it, for making you see that there is no poetry to be made from your grief.

* * *

Because you think Romeo was the problem, when you fall for Juliet, with her war paint and quiet voice, you are careless. Leaving your heart in her hands, you trust her. Juliet is ruthlessly rational and infinitely brave, and so is the girl who commands an army, the girl who kissed you like it was something precious, the girl who promised you that she and you would bring your people home. She is smart, like Juliet, and so you give her your still-mending heart.

Except what you don’t realize is that Juliet is too smart for love’s own good. Your Juliet is all head and no heart, and she drops yours, leaving it at the foot of the mountain, leaving it to die along with your people as she saves her own.

You stand there, abandoned twice over, with a unbeating heart and nowhere to go. Romeo did not think enough, and Juliet thought too much—and where does that leave you?

Alone, with blood and metal on your hands, not a dagger in sight, and you’re no longer sure if you want to plunge it into their hearts, or your own.

* * *

Heart over head, head over heart: your story, both times, ends in broken promises, fractured hearts. So screw loving Romeo. Screw falling for Juliet. Screw fate and chance and logic and free will.

You were born of the stars and have bled on the earth and have already lost two loves in your short life.

Eventually you realize that Romeo was never the problem, and Juliet was never the solution. It all comes down to you, and the chaos that you have become.

You welcome it as you walk away from everything and everyone, letting yourself be swallowed by the unknown that is as dark as the printed ink on those yellowed pages you used to read so long ago.

**Author's Note:**

> This came from the thought of what Romeo & Juliet would be like if it was Juliet & Juliet (because I studied that play for ages in college for my independent study) and I came to the unfortunate conclusion that the ending, at least in this universe, wouldn’t be any happier.


End file.
